Devotional Shrines

Pilgrimage art is visual culture intended to enhance or direct a pilgrim's experience at a particular sacred site. The artwork is quite varied, but it tends to fall into broad categories including reliquaries and shrines, architectural settings and decoration, and pilgrim costumes and souvenirs. Whether adorning massive, international centers (Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela) or tiny parish churches, works of art were used to direct pilgrims into specific areas of the church and to focus their attention on significant features. The architectural forms, shrines, altars, wall paintings, stained glass, and sculpture coalesced, dignifying and enhancing the sacred spaces. Sculptural capitals directed a pilgrim's view, canopies were lifted to reveal sparkling shrines, and carved doorways framed a pilgrim's view of a miraculous sculpture. The movement, music, and smells of incense and beeswax burning merged to make pilgrimage an extraordinary event.

At the turn-of-the-nineteenth century, Eastern European architects explored international and temporal connectivity, modernity, and nationhood through construction of architecture for the arts. Their buildings, which were intended to promote the arts, resemble religious structures that emanate a sense of the sublime. Such temples to art utilized avant-garde architecture to function as both social rituals and political statements in a subtle protest against the ruling empires of Central Europe. Current scholarship focuses on either burgeoning national self-awareness in Eastern Europe or the comparison of shrines with art architecture. I will combine these two themes to demonstrate that Eastern European architects and designers at the turn-of-the-nineteenth-century integrated architecture, interior, and function to liberate artistic spaces from the accepted and expected, creating multi-ethnic, quasi-religious temples to art. I will focus on Joseph-Maria Olbrich's Secession Building, Antonín Balšánek and Osvald Polívka's Municipal House of the Royal City of Prague, István Medgyaszay's Veszprém Theatre, and Ödön Lechner's Applied Arts Museum to illustrate the integrated outward-focused yet inward-looking style that

This paper finally gives a name to the author of the beautiful Madonna del Suffragio, worshipped at the Madonna della Guardia Sanctuary, near Gavi (AL), and at the centre of a long story of popular devotion. The sculptor of the wooden statue is Luigi Fasce, born in Ovada - near Alessandria - but grew up artistically with the important examples given by Anton Maria Maragliano and Francesco Biggi, ar tists ver y active in the Genoa’s area and even in the Oltregiogo, the land between Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy. This study gives stylistic, iconographic and technical points of view to recognize Fasce’s apprenticeship and is based even on the data taken from the recent restoration of this work of art.

Based on his Ph.D. thesis, Ibad’s study focuses on the relationship between shrines and the post-colonial state of Pakistan in Central Punjab. This relationship has been dramatically changed during the rule of Chief Martial Law Administrator General Ayub Khan (1958-1969) with the West Pakistan Waqf Properties Ordinance (WPWPO) in 1959 that aimed to bring shrines under state control. The major thinker behind the Ordinance was Javed Iqbal (1924-2015), who criticized the pluralistic traditions of Sufistic ideas and demanded the crippling of the power of the pīrs.

Shrines of Sufi Saints remain a significant aspect of the religious and social structure of Pakistan. They are fundamentally functional in creating social participation, provision of entertainment in the form of devotional music and songs (qawali), educating people, distribution of food, sweets, money etc. The purpose behind the present study was to explore the notion of Mannat and its existing types and practices in different religions and sects of the existing society. To uncover the associated belief systems of people visiting Shrines.  Moreover, to understand the underlying casual factors compelling people to make Mannat. The study’s sampling frame was Shrine of Hazrat Bari Imam in village Noor Pur Shahan of Capital Territory Islamabad, from which a sample of 80 respondents was purposively selected. The study used a blend of both qualitative and quantitative tools. The results showed.

The Indian wayside temple starts with a tree-giving solace to the farmers in the field and less so to the traveller. Literature(Must) pay attention to several key themes, particularly, the politics and poetics of religious place, identity and community. we look at mythology and geography together, in a single view, to see what we can learn of this complex conception of the land of India. Rather than focusing exclusively on texts, however, we begin "on the ground," with shrines, rivers, and hilltops where pilgrims have enacted the sense of connectedness that is part of pilgrimage. This intersection of mythology and geography reveals how the people who have come to be called Hindus have "mapped" their world and how they have understood the land they have called Bhārata in relation to the larger universe. There is arguably no other major culture that has sustained over so many centuries, and across such diverse regions, a fundamentally locative or place-oriented world-view.Here we study the geography of Road side or small shrines-their design and architecture

This article reconstructs the Holy Land installation that Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, established in the All-Saints’ Church in Wittenberg at the beginning of the 16th century. It relates this display of relics and pilgrimage imagery to the contemporary European cult of the Holy Land, and argues that this installation played a role in Frederick’s attainment of cultural hegemony in his land. In 1517, while Frederick, using relics and indulgences, encouraged Catholic worship at All-Saints’ to a record level, Luther nailed his Theses on the doors of that church and initiated the Reformation. This article explores the different fates of Holy Land objects following the Reformation – destruction, survival or adaptation into the new Protestant iconography – and argues that they played a part in the cultural transition that held in Wittenberg. Furthermore, it discusses the significance of the Holy Land in constructing cultural values and identities for both Catholics and Protestants. Keywords: Frederick III the “Wise,” Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, Holy Land relics and book of relics, Holy Land imagery, map of the Holy Land, pilgrimage, indulgences, Reformation, cultural hegemony.

The Marian Shrine of Mariamabad, Pakistan is a Catholic Church, a site of pilgrimage
famous for its unique ambiance and its yearly festival commemorating the birth of the Virgin
Mary. Visitors and pilgrims include Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. The purpose of this
study is to analyze various forms of devotion at Mariamabad from anthropological,
phenomenological, and sociological perspectives. The focus is on the different confluences of Catholic and Islamic devotion, and the influence of the traditional religions of Pakistan on Catholic practices and vice versa. The unique encounter of devotees with the numinous (in the form of Mary) and spiritual satisfaction attained by pilgrims at Mariamabad suggest that religious belief transcends the barriers of cultures and traditions by absorbing native cultural roots and traditions within itself, thus creating unique and nuanced religious perceptions and distinct ritualistic practices.

"Representations", N. 129, Winter 2015.

The essay analyzes the project of maintaining the body of V. I. Lenin in the Mausoleum in Moscow for the past ninety years, focusing on the unique biological science that developed around this project, and the unexpected political role this body has performed.

Abstract: This article discusses briefly the tragic episode after the Shahadat of Moula al Husain (as) which was Qiyamat for Ahl al Bait (as). This painful history is recorded in the authentic Maqtal of Shaikh Abbas al Qummi. ‘Aahhin Summa Aahhin’ on what the children of Rasulullah(S) faced. Pretender of the seat of the so-called caliph committed such heinous crimes with the grandson of Rasulullah(S), Moula Abi Abdillah al Imam al Husain ibn Ali(as), at Karbala in 61 (AH), the precedent of which is not found in the history of the previous nations. Yazid (L), his supporters and their like minded are that cancerous part of the Ummah who executed the family of Rasulullah(S) and continue to treat their followers with contempt and cruelty. The family of Rasulullah(S) faced such Zulm and Masaib in the long journey from Karbala to Kufa to Syria, which in the past wasn't even faced by Sualeh (as) and Hud (as) from their nations, Samud and A’ad.  Even today, the successors of Shimar and Yazid never respect Ahl al Bait (as) and deliberately ignore the injunction of the Qur’an: “Muwaddatu Fil Qurba” (expressing love for the close of kin of Rasulullah(S) – Ali, Fatimah, Hasan and Husain). What justifications will the killers of Ahl al Bait (as) (the children of Rasulullah (S)) present to Allah on the Day of Qiyamah? How will the supporters of Yazid (L) who are always ready to defend him face Rasulullah(S) on the Day of Judgement? Allah is not ignorant of the Zulm done to His servants; the victims of Zulm will have their day, a day of great importance (the Day of Qiyamah when Qis’as of their Shahadat will be taken and the criminals punished). The clarion call of Husain:“Hal Min Nasirin Yansurna”(Is there anyone to help me) still resounds and demands that the devotees practice Shariah in their daily affairs, for which Moula al Husain(as), his Ahl al Bait(as) and Ash’ab(ra) embraced Shahadat and faced trials and tribulations at the land of Karbala. For which the grand-daughters of Rasulullah(S), ladies of Bani Hashim and others bore unbearable pain. The reply to the call of Husain (as) is: “Labbaiyyka Ya Husain” which means that one is present at Karbala in the battlefield, even if alone, deserted by others, with people accusing and letting you down. It states that you, your money, your parents, family and children are all ready to participate in this battle. This is the short meaning of "Labbaiyyka Ya Husain". The unique feature of this tearful description is the side by side Marasi of the four outstanding Shia Fatemi Ismaili Du’at. These Marasi are pure from distortion.  Contrary to the Urdu and Persian poets, these Du’at focused their skill of writing poetry towards the facts and Haqaiq. They never used their pen to show the grandeur of their literary talent, like the Urdu and Persian poets.

There are a number of detailed studies on Sufi shrines in South Asia and the rituals performed there. However, there has been relatively little attention paid to the connections between the rituals performed at the shrines and the broader Sufi doctrines. This article focuses on the dargah of Baba Sharf al-Din Suhrawardi (d. 1286), a Muslim saint who migrated from Baghdad around the mid-thirteenth century and is regarded to be the first Sufi who settled in the area. Beside providing a description of the social and ritual life of the shrine from an anthropological perspective, it specifically looks at the individual experiences of devotees visiting the shrine in order to highlight the roles played by the shrine in the local society. The obtainment of—or the will to obtain—divine blessing (barakat) is a key element to understand the meanings of the devotees’ behaviour.

Upon the occasion of the Dedication of St. Paul's Votive Ship, "The Endurance," this brief festschrift celebrates the fascinating origins and traditions about Votive Ships in the ancient heritage of the Church and explores how Votive Ships can inform and inspire personal prayer.

Sufi shrines hold great importance in Pakistani society. Followers of the shrines consider it sacred place and they perform different rituals there. The role of Sufis has been considered as intermediary who lead towards the path of God and success. Present study deployed qualitative research technique whereby data was drawn from 19 in-depth interviews at the Hazrat Mian Mir’s Shrine in Lahore. Findings of the study revealed that majority of the people have strong belief upon the blessings of Sufis and they visit shrine to fulfill their social, economic, physical, and spiritual needs. They believed that the late Sufis of shrine could listen, correspond and help them in multiple ways. However, some people thought otherwise. They believed the Sufi of shrine as pious ones but they did not believe upon the intermediary role of Sufis between human beings and Allah. Perceptions about myths and superstitions varied with regard to gender and level of education but majority of visitors did not believe in myths and superstitions.

El trabajo discutirá la emergencia del santuario de Santo Toribio Romo en Los Altos jaliscienses, como producto de la acción performativa de prácticas históricas del catolicismo, migración y estética alteña las cuales se articulan con flujos regionales, nacionales y globales permitiendo que temas como el turismo y los círculos migratorios de una localidad se reescalen espacial y temporalmente.

También, se trata de una versión revisada del texto "El Santuario de Santo Toribio Romo en Los Altos Jaliscienses: La periferia en el Centro" publicado en la Revista Nueva Antropología

This paper aims to present the unifying force brought by a Marian devotion to two
towns located in two places with different circumstances in Philippine Church history. In
the spiritual geography of the religious orders in the Philippines, the parishes of Bataan were administered by the Dominicans since 1588 while the parishes of Bulacan were administered by majority by the Augustinians since 1572. La Virgen Milagrosa del Rosario del Pueblo de Orani grew as a Marian devotion that has gathered pilgrims in many years. The image was brought to Bataan and eventually completed the triumvirate of Dominican patrons with Abucay being devoted to St. Dominic de Guzman in 1588 and Samal being devoted to St. Catherine of Siena in 1596. When Orani was separated to be an independent parish in 1714, the devotion grew further. Then, between the 1700s to the 1800s, a brown-skinned image of the Virgin and the Child Jesus was discovered along the riverbanks of Hagonóy, Bulacan, under the Augustinians at the other side of the Manila Bay. This image was very similar to Orani's La Virgen Milagrosa, which in turn would be recognized as Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Hagonóy. Though a Dominican-propagated devotion, this local rosary devotion and the image grew in this town with various traditions such as Marian poetry and the promotion of the Block Rosary movement. Orani's image would later on be further venerated not only in Bataan but in the neighboring provinces. Though Hagonóy can be found farther East from Bataan and Pampanga, the rosary devotion in this town seemed a visage of the Bataan patroness. By 1942, the fall of Bataan caused Bataeños to travel to Hagonóy and settling in the western barrio of the town. This was eventually named Sto. Rosario in honor of the Virgin of the Rosary. There the Bataeños saw their patroness in the image of the discovered Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Hagonóy. The circumstances of the
relations between the people of the two towns resulted in the establishment of the parish of Sto. Rosario, Hagonóy in 1952. Further propagation of these two devotions allowed for the recognition of both Marian devotions by their dioceses and by the Holy See. Orani's image was granted a canonical coronation in 1958. Eventually, the church of Orani was granted the titles diocesan shrine in 2004, an affiliate of the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in 2012 and a minor basilica in 2019. The devotion to Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Hagonóy, on the other hand, was granted an episcopal coronation also in 2019. The impact of the local Marian devotion in these two towns became a way to unite the Catholic faithful, like a link of the beads of the rosary which identify the country as “Pueblo amante de Maria.

Baraka (lit. blessing) lay at the foundation of Muslim and Jewish conceptions and perceptions of the sacred. Medieval devotees sought the baraka of prophets, saints and devotional objects. This study considers the physical and devotional setting for the transmission of baraka and the ritual acts devotees performed in order to acquire it.

It cannot be doubted that medieval devotion towards the cults of saints was a physical affair, involving touching, kissing and even crawling as a way of coming into direct contact with the intercessory power of the divine. Expressions of the physicality of this type of worship can be seen in the design of the architectural and decorative schemes of medieval foramina-type saints’ shrines, and permeate the artistic elements of these sacred locales. Few survive, but in the stained glass and illuminated manuscripts of the twelfth right through to the fifteenth century, pilgrims are depicted crawling into them, kissing the shrine through its apertures, and bestowing ex voto offerings in the shape of infected or broken limbs. Whilst highlighting the variety of monumental architecture deployed in the space of cult churches, they also demonstrate the importance of the multi-sensory involvement of such locations.
This paper will explore the importance of sensory experience throughout the late twelfth to the early fifteenth-century, with a particular focus on the act of bodily participation with the divine, and how this was reflected in the architectural and visual structure of a saintly site. To illustrate the importance of sensory means of veneration towards the cults of saints, several stained glass images from the decorative frameworks of two of the most popular English shrines of the medieval period will be analysed; one of whom was a very locally venerated saint, and the other who was perhaps the most popular saint in the country for the majority of the Middle Ages.

Academic discourses on religion in modern India have predominantly searched for ‘essence’ of religious tradition by analysing their ‘source’ and ‘original components’. When this ‘source’ gets recognized, religion is ahistorically established in its ‘pure and unchanging essence’. This largely Protestant conception of religion then seeks to explain the ‘foreign imports’ and ‘influences’ as derivate from ‘original’. One wonders whether there exists an understanding of religion that remains static and complete to qualify classification as ‘great faith/traditions’? Can this category escape the long-term view of religions as evolving traditions that have constantly refashioned them, at times by revisiting older debates in the moment of the contemporary? Any treatment of religion as homogeneous or autonomous, therefore, vastly oversimplifies complex questions of historical change. Where shall we find a historically untouched religion? Through the prism of popular veneration, this discussion proposes to see religious debates as ‘processual,’ that are ‘in the making’ and where normative and discursive practices are dialectically embedded in the social milieu.

Count Pere II d’Urgell (ca. 1339/1343-1408) is one of the most outstanding artistic promoters of the gothic centuries. He, along with his wife, Margarida de Monferrato (1364-1420), set in motion an artistic policy that was developed in different fields, the maximum exponent of which is the renovation of the residence that the counts had in Balaguer, the so-called Castell Formós. Throughout his life Pere and Margarida showed a special interest in jewels and luxury objects, which on some occasions were given as a present to churches and religious centers as an example of piety and magnificence. It could be the case of the pastiglia casket from Santa Maria de Bellpuig de les Avellanes (Museu de Lleida: diocesà i comarcal), which contained an important relic, the Santa Sandàlia (Holy Slipper) of the Virgin, which in this study we present as a possible donation of the counts to this monastery. The same goes for an enamelled ciborium, of great quality and with the mark of Barcelona, preserved in the Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia), which has at the base the double heraldry of Count Pere. We do not know its origin, but it is feasible that this luxurious object was a present of the count to one of the churches located within its domains.

Full transcript of Racaniello's Master's Thesis, detailing the "shrine complex" and votive culture. Possible relationships between northern and southern French shrines are examined in this paper through case studies of the shrines at Chartres and Conques. The materiality of cult statues and votive objects, the body as performative tool, and institutional motivations are considered for their bearing on the shrine as a system.

Recommended Citation:
Racaniello, Kristen N., "The Shrine System: Votive Culture and Cult Sculpture, Enshrining Space in 11th to 13th Century France" (2017). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/148

Holy sites, both public - churches, monasteries, shrines - and more private - domestic chapels, oratories - populated the landscape of medieval and early modern Europe, providing contemporaries with access to the divine. These sacred spaces thus defined religious experience, and were fundamental to both the geography and social history of Europe over the course of 1,000 years. But how were these sacred spaces, both public and private, defined? How were they created, used, recognised and transformed? And to what extent did these definitions change over the course of time, and in particular as a result of the changes wrought in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Taking a strongly interdisciplinary approach, this volume tackles these questions from the point of view of archaeology, architectural and art history, liturgy, and history to consider the fundamental interaction between the sacred and the profane. Exploring the establishment of sacred space within both the public and domestic spheres, as well as the role of the secular within the sacred sphere, each chapter provides fascinating insights into how these concepts helped shape, and were shaped by, wider society. By highlighting these issues on a European basis from the medieval period through the age of the reformations, these essays demonstrate the significance of continuity as much as change in definitions of sacred space, and thus identify long term trends which have hitherto been absent in more limited studies. As such this volume provides essential reading for anyone with an interest in the ecclesiastical development of western Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Zahvaljujući današnjem svijetu u pokretu, milijunima ljudi na putu, pojam hodočašća je postao izrazito propusan za razna svjetovna značenja. Nerijetko se dogodi da postane i besmislen. Istodobno, Međugorje i brojna druga europska hodočasnička odredišta iz godine u godinu bilježe sve veći broj hodočasnika, a njima je hodočašće itekako smislena, koherentna i bliska religijska stvarnost.
Knjiga nudi kritički pregled razvoja i smjerova antropologije hodočašća, poddiscipline kulturne antropologije, u kojem se suočavaju razni i različiti pogledi na hodočašće. U konkretnim se istraživačkim situacijama, u hodočasničkom Međugorju, propituju teorijske smjernice i prepoznaju stranputice, te se rasvjetljava dinamična, mnogostruka, mnogoznačna, ali i proturječna stvarnost hodočašća i hodočasničkog odredišta.
Kakav je odnos raznih strategija uključenih u oblikovanje hodočasničkog Međugorja? Kako se oblikuju hodočasnička iskustva u interakciji s ovim hodočasničkim odredištem? Kakav je međuodnos hodočasničkog Međugorja i Međugorja kao prostora življenja? Kakva je sprega Međugorja sa širim religijskim, društvenim, političkim i ekonomskim prostorom? To su temeljna pitanja u okviru kojih se u knjizi promišlja hodočašće i hodočasnička kvaliteta mjesta. Pritom se Međugorje – to sveto tlo, kako ga definira jedna hodočasnica – pokazuje i kao specifičan hodočasnički prostor, jer je u njemu osobito naglašena sloboda hodočasničke imaginacije i kreativnosti.

Why and how does popular memory reconfigure itself in the form of dreams? Taking a clue from the veneration of saints at popular Sufi shrines, this article underlines the role played by memory and dreams in the restitution of the practice of saint veneration in contemporary (East) Punjab. It further probes the grand theories of post-colonial nation-states ideologies and problematizes the accepted processes of Islamization. Through an analysis of dream experiences and social memory, the intention is to chart a social history of Islamic acculturation in South Asia.

Abstract: This article discusses how the Shi’i Fatimi Ismaili Tayyabi Dawoodi Bohras commemorate the first ten days of Muharram, also known as Al Asharah al-Mubarakah in remembrance of the Azeem and unparalleled sacrifice of Moula Abi Abdillah Al Imam al-Husain Ibn Amir al-Mumineen Ali (as) at Karbala. Sayyid ash Shuhada Husain (as), his Ahl al-Bayt (as) and Ash’ab (ra) fought against the Zulm, injustice, and harassment committed by the Syrian emperor Yazid (L). Al Imam al-Husain (as) opposed and exposed him by sacrificing his life. The process of learning enriches the Aqidah and ‘ilm of the community members through Muharram Wa’az (sermons), which includes various topics of interest. It also informs us that this 1000-year-old legacy of the Shi’i Fatimi Ismaili Imams is continued with the same spirit by their Du’at, which refreshes the spiritual energies of the followers.

This paper explains how Filipino priestly spirituality based from the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP-II) in 1991 is comprised of seven characters: 1) rooted and centered on Christ; 2) ministerial; 3) collegial; 4) lived in the spirit of the evangelical counsels of obedience, chastity, and poverty; 5) missionary; 6) Eucharistic; and 7) Marian. Of these characters, the term Marian stands out as something not directly connected to the term priest, but eventually is something that is actually most connected to all the other six characters. It is essential to discover how Marian spirituality and priestly spirituality are actually connected through the principle of discipleship. Called "the perfect disciple of Christ", the Virgin Mary is indeed seen as the remarkable example of priestly holiness. To place a feminine character to become an example for a masculine character is not a conflict between feminism and chauvinism, but a matter of faithful observance to good inspiration. The question is how does a priest become Marian? The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) advises to use the local Marian devotions around the area. Hence is a Filipino priest from Bulacan aims to be inspired by the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a number of Marian examples would be prominent local titles that have been honored in the past in the Diocese. There four "coronadas" or Marian images that have had the honor of being crowned either by papal mandate or by episcopal decree in the past: La Virgen Inmaculada Concepcion de Malolos, Nuestra Señora de la Inmaculada Concepcion de Salambao de Obando, Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Fatima de la Ciudad de Valenzuela and La Purisima Concepcion de Santa Maria. These images present the case of popular Bulakeño Marian spirituality. It is the spirituality of the people, of which the present clergy is able to get inspiration to in part of the mandate of a Marian spirituality for a priest. It is a sign not of the pomposity of the celebrations, but rather the internal disposition of the priest to be a true Marian devotee.

This article is an approach to the remains of a Gothic tabernacle-shrine discovered in the church of Santa Maria de Cap d’Aran (Tredos, Naut Aran, Lleida) on 2014. The fragments preserved are from a type of liturgical furniture well known in Europe, but which few examples have come down in the Iberian Peninsula. The research has been performed to confirm also that this tabernacle-shrine was chaired by a wood carving with the representation of a saint deacon, now kept at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. The style of this sculpture, similar to the so-called «group of Comminges», and some details of the polychromy of the tabernacle-shrine, let us conclude that the realization of this type of liturgical furniture could be done by the same workshop, and this incorporates a new element to value the versatility of artisans who were part of the group.

This paper investigates an hitherto neglected aspect of late Medieval devotion, which was connected with the peculiar expressions of piety of the seepeople. The coast lines of the late Medieval Mediterranean were dotted with a large number of shrines which corresponded to safe places and repairs along the navigation routes. A specific litany was worked out in order to invoke the appearance of such places on the horizon when the ships were lost in the sea. The reconstruction and publication of such a list allows us herewith to understand this very articulated, transnational and transconfessional cultic topography.

The monastery of Our Lady of Saydnaya, located 22 km east of Damascus, still proves to be one of the most important cult-centres of present-day Syria; although it is inhabited and controlled by Christian (i.e. Greek Orthodox) nuns, its church, housing a very famous icon of the Virgin Mary, is daily visited also by a great many Muslim worshippers. Its renown dates back to the late 12th century, and for a long time it was an important goal for many pilgrims from both the Christian East and Western Europe, even if, unlike other Terrasanta holy places, it was not associated with any relic nor major episode of the Gospel, as well as it couldn’t boast of being founded by any important representative of Early Christian monasticism. Saydnaya’s reputation as a holy place was an immediate consequence of the holiness of its icon, which was credited to sanctify the entire space around it; not only the church and monastery complex, built on a pinnacle of rock, but also the village which extended below it were praised as places blessed by God, where vines and other plants were blooming, plenty of water was available, and only Christians were admitted to live: if any Muslims dared to settle there, they were expected to die within a year.
Saydnaya’s natural and social environment (i.e. luxuriant vegetation vs. sand and stone desert, Christian inhabitants vs. Muslims) played a distinctive role in the shaping of its sacred aura, since visitors had the impression that they were entering a kind of Eden or Eldorado, favoured by God’s grace. Its very center was the main church within the monastery walls, whose inner core was the sanctuary housing the holy icon. Although in its present state it seems to have been extensivily rebuilt and altered, we can get an idea of the church settings and furnishings from a great deal of written descriptions by Latin and Christian Arab pilgrims from the 12th through the 17th century, as well as from collections of miracles of the Virgin Mary in several languages (among them, Latin, Old French, Spanish, Arabic, and Ethiopian). Such sources provide us with a valuable bulk of information about the general layout and arrangement of the building, which were meant to convey the visitors’ gradual involvement into the sacred place by means of a sophisticated rite of approach to the holy icon.
First of all, the pilgrim had to ascend the hill of Saydnaya and enter the gate of the monastery walls, then he passed through a square and covered portico and approached the door of the church. The building, being rather large, had a basilican plan and consisted of a central nave and two lateral aisles, separated by six columns; after going the whole length of the nave, he had to stop next to the templon gate, before being allowed to go further. Some of the monks or nuns would have lead him or her into the bema, where they were requested to kneel down in front of the place were the icon was said to be housed. According to sources, the image, being covered with many veils, was kept inside a recess or niche secured with an iron grille and located on the eastern wall, just behind the altar; a miraculous oil, poured out of the Virgin’s surface, ran down the wall and filled up a marble basin located below it. At that exact moment, the monks or nuns put their arms through the grating and collected some of that miraculous oil, and started anointing the pilgrims’ foreheads. By such means, visitors were emotionally and physically involved into the sacredness of that shrine.
The icon enjoyed such an high reputation since it was credited to be made of human flesh. According to some local traditions, it was turned into flesh when a monk from Constantinople had refused to hand it over to the monastery abbess. The church doors had then closed by themselves and they didn’t open before the image was located in the niche behind the altar; subsequently, in order to express its wish to be held within that building by means of  a miraculous sign, the icon took the form of a soft skin, and from its surface came out a breast pouring out the miraculous oil. The holy icon was a real substitute for the Virgin Mary’s body and the whole sacred space around it was imbued with such bodily presence: the church walls were damped by its holy liquid, its doors protected it, it was inserted within its apse as a child in in the womb of his mother.
Admittedly, it was a quite odd location for an icon within an Eastern Christian church. Even if we know that holy icons of the Virgin Mary could be housed within the bema (among them, the ‘Panagia Kyrá’ in the Pharos Chapel of the Great Palace in Constantinople), such a setting is much more reminiscent of the arrangement of the sanctuary in Western churches, where painted images are usually associated with the altar. Painted recesses or niches housing painted panels and statues are also, though sporadically, witnessed since the 11th century; since some interesting examples may be recognized within Latin buildings in Outremer and Cyprus, we suspect that such a device may have been influenced by Crusader models. In any case, it is worth pointing out that such a setting, consciously replicating that of Saydnaya, has been singled out by scholars in some churches of the Eastern Mediterranean, such as the Panayia Chryseleousa at Lyso, Cyprus (as argued by Annemarie Weyl Carr). Other shrines, like the cave-church of Saydet-Naya at Kfar Chlaiman in Lebanon, may have been affected by a quite similar arrangement.
The replication of Saydnaya’s sacred space was a consequence of its wide reknown among pilgrims from both Eastern and Western Christianity. Reliquaries of the miraculous oil spread throughout Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. According to an hypothesis, the Madonna Damascena worshipped in Rhodes and later in Malta by the Military Order of the Hospitallers, may have been reminiscent of the cult-icon in Saydnaya. Moreover, one wonders if the dissemination of the iconographic type of the Galaktotrophousa may also have been stimulated by such a phaenonomenon, since the holy icon was usually identified as a nursing Vergin. An analysis of extant illustrations of the Miracle de la Vierge de Sardenai or Sardanek (as it was usually known to Old French visitors) within Western manuscripts of the Late Middle ages may be of great help to reconstruct the image’s iconography, as well as the cult practices it was involved in; in fact, instead of simply replicating its outward appearance, they usually represented its cult-context within the Syrian shrine. The story of the ‘embodied image’ of Saydnaya is also a source for the widespread legend of the “Saracen converted by the icon of the Virgin Mary”. According to it, a Muslim appropriated a Christian image and put it within a niche in the wall of its house; he respected and also worshipped it, but he was still unable to trust the dogma of Incarnation. By means of a miracle, the icon then turned into flesh, and the Saracen, being convinced, decided to become a Christian. Such a story replicates both the connection of the icon with a wall and the embodiment topos; it was probably stimulated by the fact that local Muslims used to venerate the Saydnaya icon, and, by doing so, caused Western pilgrims to be astonished and think of all that as a consequence of the special grace given by God to that holy place.

Resumo: O monumento à Virgem do Sameiro, erigido em 1869 no alto do monte fronteiro à cidade de Braga e situado não longe do santuário do Bom Jesus do Monte, foi misteriosamente destruído, a 9 de janeiro de 1883, durante uma noite de temporal. Pensou-se e noticiou-se inicialmente que fora um raio que produzira a destruição, mas entre o povo de Braga e suas imediações que afluiu ao local, ganhou rapidamente força a ideia de que o monumento fora derrubado por mãos criminosas, com recurso a dinamite. O caso provocou um amplo debate na imprensa local e nacional, em que se defrontaram três teses: a do raio, a do atentado criminoso e a que se tentou impor oficialmente, que apontava a má construção do monumento e a intempérie. Este artigo analisa as três teses, contextualiza-as do ponto de vista político-religioso e discute, em particular, a posição do engenheiro António Arroio, um dos responsáveis pela versão oficial. Em anexo, transcrevem-se sessenta notícias e artigos publicados nos primeiros meses de 1883 na imprensa regional e nacional sobre a destruição do monumento do Sameiro.      Abstract: The monument to the Virgin of Sameiro, erected in 1869 on the top of the hill opposite the city of Braga (Northern Portugal) and situated not far from the sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, was mysteriously destroyed on January 9, 1883, during a night of storm. It was first thought and reported that it had been a thunderbolt that had produced the destruction, but among the people of Braga and its surrounding area, it quickly gained ground the idea that the monument had been overthrown by criminal hands using dynamite . The case provoked an ample debate in the local and national press, in which three theses were faced: the thunderbolt thesis, the bombing thesis and the one the authorities tried to impose, that pointed the bad construction of the monument and the stormy weather. This article analyzes the three theses, contextualizes them from a political-religious point of view and discusses, in particular, the account upheld by the engineer António Arroio, one of those responsible for the official version. Attached are sixty stories and articles published in the first months of 1883 in the regional and national press about the destruction of the Sameiro monument.

Jaime L. Cardinal Sin Catholic Book Award - Liturgy Category
15th Cardinal Sin Catholic Book Awards
November 19, 2021
(Asia Catholic Communicators, Inc., Quezon City)

Finalist, Elfren S. Cruz Award in Social Sciences
National Book Awards
March 18, 2023
(National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle)

Shrines are sacred places found all around the world as sites where God’s grace could be experienced by pilgrims who come  from different places. Even in the modern age, these places  are not only seen as venues for prayer and discernment, but also as centers for evangelization where the Church could truly be felt - a Church where devotion thrives and where mission is held in the shrine‘s pastoral programs.

Author Kendrick Ivan B. Panganiban here presents his research, which forms a reference to theology on shrines and  pilgrimages as well as a pastoral  manual on the development of shrine administration.  This is inspired  by Pope Francis’  instruction  on the developing  shrines in the New Evangelization of  the Church. It also presents a first-time documentation of the many declared shrines in the Philippines.